- Brent crude tops $108 as Trump rejects Iranian proposal to reopen Hormuz Strait
Source: CNBC
“Oil prices jumped Monday in Asia trading after U.S. President Donald Trump rejected an Iranian peace proposal aimed at ending the Middle East conflict and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. crude futures for November delivery rose 3.3% to $95.46 a barrel as of 4:57 a.m. ET, while international benchmark Brent gained 3.66% to $108.14 a barrel. Trump turned down Iran’s conditional offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and told aides he expects U.S. strikes on the country to resume after November’s midterm elections, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, citing unnamed U.S. officials.” (09/28/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/28/oil-price-today-wti-brent-trump-iran.html
- Russian attacks kill eight in Ukraine after Moscow vows to continue war
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Russian strikes killed eight people across Ukraine on Sunday, a day after Moscow vowed to pursue the war, authorities said Sunday. … On Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the UN General Assembly his country intended to continue its military campaign ‘to the end’.” (09/27/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20260927-russian-strikes-kill-eight-ukraine-war-moscow
- Venezuelans Rally to Demand Opposition Leader’s Safe Return and Presidential Elections
Source: US News & World Report
“Supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado took to the country’s streets on Sunday to demand her safe return and presidential elections that could lead to a democratic transition in Venezuela. The government has been widely accused of stealing elections, jailing dissidents and stifling freedom of speech. In Caracas, hundreds of activists in sky blue shirts — the color of Machado’s Vente Venezuela party — rode motorcycles and drove through the city’s main avenues, honking their horns and waving Venezuelan flags. Similar demonstrations were held in state capitals including Valencia, Maracaibo and Merida. … Machado has been living in exile for the past nine months, and has had her plans to return to Venezuela spoiled multiple times. Opposition activists have accused Venezuela’s government of blocking her return, a claim denied by Venezuelan authorities.” (09/27/26)
- Trump Offered to Sell Arms to China, US Ambassador Says
Source: Seattle Times
“President Donald Trump has asked Chinese President Xi Jinping whether he would like to buy U.S. weapons, David Perdue, the U.S. ambassador to China, said in a television interview Sunday. ‘President Trump continues to say, ‘Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world,’’ Perdue said on ‘Fox News Sunday’ while discussing the state visit by Xi to Washington last week. ‘He actually asked President Xi would he like to buy some at one point.’ Perdue did not give further details and did not reveal Xi’s reply. … When asked for comment, the White House said through a U.S. official that the United States had no plans to sell arms to China. The State Department said in a statement that ‘U.S. law prohibits arms sales to China, and there is no offer or plan to sell arms to China.'” (09/27/26)
- Serbia: Vucic resigns as president to run for prime minister
Source: The Guardian
“Serbia’s populist president, Aleksandar Vučić, has resigned to pursue an attempt to become prime minister in an early parliamentary election that will test his firm rule in the Balkan country after nearly two years of protests. Vučić’s second presidential term would otherwise end in May next year. He is banned by the constitution from seeking a third term and said he was resigning to lead his rightwing Serbian Progressive party (SNS) in the 25 October ballot. The governing populists face a major challenge from a youth-backed movement that led protests triggered by a train station canopy collapse in November 2024 that killed 16 people in the northern city of Novi Sad.” (09/27/26)
- MI: Credit union CEO “no longer employed” after “Lake America” post
Source: The Detroit News
“The CEO of a mid-Michigan credit union is no longer employed by the financial institution after posting an AI-generated photo of herself and family members wearing Lake America sweatshirts. Saginaw-based Family First Credit Union said in a Sept. 23 statement that CEO Jane Smith is no longer an employee of the credit union, ‘effective immediately.’ It noted that Jason Acosta, its chief operations officer, is now serving as the institution’s interim CEO. ‘We sincerely apologize for the concern, disappointment and pain this situation has caused our members and community,’ Family First Credit Union said in a Facebook post on Sept. 24.” [editor’s note: Anyone feeling concern, disappointment, or pain over a social media post with an AI-generated “Lake America” t-shirt has big mental or emotional problems; those problems shouldn’t have been made into her employment problem – TLK] (09/26/26)
- France: 800k turn out for papal Mass
Source: AOL
“Hundreds of thousands of people packed Paris'[s] iconic Champs-Élysées Avenue for Pope Leo XIV’s big outdoor Mass on Saturday, a sign of the Catholic Church’s enduring appeal in the once staunchly Catholic but officially secular country. The Vatican estimated that 800,000 people came out for the Mass — more than the 600,000 who had registered in advance. The stunning turnout testified to the church’s enduring influence in France, despite sharp declines in churchgoing in recent decades and secularizing trends that have emptied churches around Europe.” (09/26/26)
https://www.aol.com/articles/pope-leo-attracts-700-000-145100000.html
- TX: Austin council candidate released after abduction tied to anti-gang protest
Source: Austin American-Statesman
“Misael Ramos, an Austin City Council candidate running to represent District 1 in East Austin, was released from the Travis County Jail on Saturday evening after state troopers arrested him earlier in the day. … Jeffrey Clemmons, Ramos'[s] campaign manager, said two of Ramos’ neighbors saw him being detained by several state troopers, including officers in unmarked vehicles, while Ramos was walking his dog around 8:50 a.m. Saturday. Clemmons said the officers never showed Ramos a warrant for his arrest. … Travis County Sheriff’s Office records show that Ramos was booked into Travis County Central Booking at 9:31 a.m. Saturday on a charge of participating in a riot, a Class B misdemeanor.” [editor’s note: The “riot” was a protest over the ICE gang’s attempted murder of a DoorDash driver – TLK] (09/26/26)
- Spain: 87-year-old’s eviction sparks encampment in Madrid plaza to protest housing crisis
Source: Associated Press
“Protesters outraged by the eviction of an 87-year-old woman spent the night camped in Madrid’s historic Puerta del Sol plaza, where more people — including multigenerational families — joined them Sunday for a second day of demonstrations over Spain’s housing crisis. Tens of thousands of people marched in Madrid on Saturday to protest the eviction of María del Carmen Abascal from an apartment in the upscale Retiro neighborhood which had been her home for decades. Protesters are demanding protective measures for tenants, anti-fraud rules and a ban on evictions without alternative housing.” (09/27/26)
https://apnews.com/article/spain-evictions-madrid-housing-protest-afee10896ccb41d324375f8f148e4804
- White House moves to block $810 million in spending through pocket rescission
Source: CNBC
“The White House on Friday evening announced plans to claw back $810 million in congressionally appropriated funding, prompting criticism from lawmakers. A year ago, President Donald Trump’s administration blocked $4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid through a pocket rescission, marking the first time in roughly 50 years that the president has attempted to use that authority. The controversial budget maneuver occurs when a president submits a request to Congress to block funding so close to the end of the fiscal year that the funds can expire before Congress receives the full 45-day consideration period under the law. … The rescissions would block $567 million appropriated for Health and Human Services programs for refugees, asylees and other non-citizens and $28 million for HHS research. Additional cuts target the Department of Education’s special programs for immigrant students, among other programs.” (09/26/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/26/white-house-810-million-pocket-rescission.html
- Private spacecraft falls back to Earth after failing to rescue aging NASA telescope
Source: SFGate
“The robotic spacecraft that failed to rescue an aging NASA telescope plunged back to Earth on Friday less than three months after launching on the bold mission. Katalyst Space Technologies announced the demise of its three-armed spacecraft named Link. It reentered the atmosphere overnight, bringing the $30 million, NASA-sponsored salvage effort of the Swift Observatory to a close. Swift is expected to follow in early November as its orbit steadily sinks.” (09/25/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/private-spacecraft-falls-back-to-earth-after-22448766.php
- South Africa: At Least 27 Killed in Two Overnight Mass Shootings
Source: New York Times
“At least 27 people were killed in two separate shootings in South Africa on Saturday night and early Sunday morning, adding to the toll of mass shootings in a country struggling to control violent crime. The shootings, which like other attacks in recent years came at bars or taverns, occurred near the country’s two most populous cities, Johannesburg and Cape Town, in township communities that face socioeconomic challenges. … South Africa has one of the world’s highest murder rates.” [editor’s note: And some of the world’s most restrictive victim disarmament (“gun control”) laws. How’s that working out for them? – TLK] (09/27/26)
- NYC: Prostitution arrests plunge 60% along well-known stroll
Source: New York Post
“Scoring illegal sex along Queens’ Roosevelt Avenue has never been easier — as the number of hookers has multiplied and prostitution-related arrests have plunged by 60% along the seedy strip since soft-on-crime socialist Zohran Mamdani became mayor this year. John, a 40-year-old Manhattan horndog, said he has no problem schlepping on the subway to the notorious open-air sex bazaar — nicknamed the ‘Market of Sweethearts’ — because the women are ‘cheap’ and cops have their hands tied by lax laws and policies. … NYPD officers reported making 193 prostitution-related arrests along Roosevelt Avenue this year through Sept. 13, records show. That’s a massive 59% drop from the 468 arrests during the same period the previous year when ex-NYPD captain-turned-mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch led a major enforcement effort dubbed ‘Operation Restore Roosevelt.'” [editor’s note: The Post reports this like it’s a bad thing – TLK] (09/27/26)
- UK: Police evacuate homes near air base used by US and detain men on suspected explosives offensives
Source: ABC News
“Police evacuated homes Sunday near an air base in England used by the U.S. and arrested several men over suspected explosives offenses. The Gloucestershire Police force said Sunday that residents of ‘a number of properties’ in Whelford, western England, have been taken to a nearby leisure center and that the situation is ‘contained.’ That is close to RAF Fairford, a base that American forces have used for strictly limited strikes during the war with Iran. … Police say several men have been detained on suspicion of offences under the Explosives Act, and army bomb-disposal experts are examining several vehicles.” (09/27/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/uk-police-evacuate-homes-air-base-us-detain-136793296
- Switzerland: Voters reject stricter interpretation of neutrality
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Voters in Switzerland have overwhelmingly rejected a stricter interpretation of the country’s tradition of diplomatic neutrality. More than 70% of Swiss voters rejected proposals that would have prevented the European nation from imposing sanctions without UN approval, official results showed. The move would have also prevented Switzerland from pursuing closer ties with the Nato military alliance. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has reopened the debate around Switzerland’s centuries-old non-alignment. Moscow openly backed the initiative, which was supported by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) and opposed by the federal government and all other major parties.” (09/27/26)
- Trump slashes Biden-era fuel economy standards for cars
Source: Politico
“President Donald Trump announced Saturday that he has approved new fuel economy standards for passenger vehicles, in another move meant to take aim at Biden-era policies supporting electric vehicles. … The final rule was not immediately available, and officials from the White House did not immediately respond to questions. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy amplified Trump’s post on social media, adding, ‘A major victory for America’s auto workers is COMING MONDAY.’ The new regulation is expected to slash fuel economy standards for passenger vehicles by nearly one-third through model year 2031.” (09/26/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/26/trump-vehicle-standards-ev-01067597
- Texas clinic owner convicted in $26M military health fraud tied to gold-plated Cybertruck
Source: Fox News
“A Texas mental health clinic owner was convicted by a federal jury after prosecutors said he orchestrated a $26 million scheme to defraud the military’s health care program, using some of the proceeds to fund luxury purchases, including a gold-plated Tesla Cybertruck worth more than $100,000. Kevin D. Curry, 64, of Frisco, was found guilty Thursday in federal court in Fort Worth on three counts of health care fraud, three counts of offering and paying illegal health care kickbacks and three counts of engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property, according to the Justice Department. Federal prosecutors said Curry exploited TRICARE, the health care program serving active-duty servicemembers, retirees and their families, by billing for transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, therapy that was medically unnecessary or, in many cases, never provided.” (09/27/26)
- Australia: Regime summons OpenAI and Anthropic CEOs to appear at AI inquiry
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Australia has called for the CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic to appear before a Senate inquiry into artificial intelligence, just days after revelations that a rogue OpenAI bot had hacked the country’s health-system database. OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei have been sent written requests to appear at the inquiry, which is to hold public hearings in the capital, Canberra, on Thursday, a spokesperson for Senator Sarah Hanson-Young of the Australian Greens party said. The inquiry is examining the potential impacts of AI and data centres on safety, data transparency, Australian communities, industries, water and energy. It is one of several state and federal inquiries into AI.” (09/27/26)
- CA: Silicon Valley congressman alleges major project is tied to Russian oligarch
Source: SFGate
“A Silicon Valley congressman is calling for a federal investigation into a controversial Menlo Park development, saying a Russian oligarch with alleged ties to organized crime is behind the project. U.S. Rep Sam Liccardo, a Democrat whose district covers the city, asserted in a letter Wednesday to Department of the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that the development’s land is owned by Vitaly Yusufov, a Russian whom Liccardo says has been sanctioned by Ukraine and has acted on behalf of former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. He said the project’s location near tech companies raises national security concerns. Oisin Heneghan, the founder of N17 Development, the San Francisco-based developer behind the project, said in an email to SFGATE Friday that Liccardo’s allegations are ‘based on false reporting and what can only be described as NIMBY fan fiction.’” (09/25/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/liccardo-menlo-park-russia-22449265.php
- SpaceX launches secret payload from California
Source: United Press International
“SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 ship Saturday morning from California with a secret mission for the U.S. military. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 7 a.m. PDT from Vandenberg Space Force Base for the USSF-385 mission. The rocket went in a southerly direction after launch from Space Launch Complex 4-East, according to Space Flight Now. … This mission for the U.S. Space Force is believed to be the third in a series of flights to send satellites based on SpaceX’s Starshield, which is a version of a Starlink satellite for government use.” (09/26/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/09/26/spacex-launch-secret-space-force/6701790434478/
- It isn’t just the Second Amendment that is targeted
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton“Woke enemies of liberty have a lot of things these days that they want to get rid of. … The Second Amendment of course, is most prominent of the targets on their firing range. For decades, we’ve seen more and more conflict over the right to keep and bear arms. … But we know that the First Amendment is also one of targets of these enemies of liberty.” (09/27/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/09/27/it-isnt-just-the-second-amendment-that-is-targeted/
- Tariffs are Even Less Popular than the Iran War
Source: Independent Institute
by Brady Leonard“If you listen to pundits, the cause of both the President and his party’s electoral struggles is the war in Iran. The war is deeply unpopular, 61% of voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the conflict. Fuel prices have exploded since the beginning of the war and Iran’s predictable moves to control or at least disrupt shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The price of gasoline has risen nearly 50% since February and diesel is up a whopping 75%. Bombs make headlines, and there are constituencies on both the far-left and far-right who have a particular obsession with the state of Israel, making conflict in the Middle East an easy scapegoat, but this misses the root cause of the Right’s current woes.” (09/25/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/09/25/tariffs-less-popular-iran/
- Government Is The Cause of Fuel Price Sticker Shock. Don’t Expect It to Be The Cure.
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“As Thomas Sowell wrote in 2013, ‘sometimes it seems as if there are more solutions than problems. On closer scrutiny, it turns out that many of today’s problems are a result of yesterday’s solutions.’ Government perceives, or even creates a problem. In this case, the US government created the problem of high fuel prices with its war on Iran. Government intervenes in markets to ‘solve’ the problem. But that intervention creates new, different problems — usually while failing to solve the previous problems. And those new problems are addressed with yet more interventions. At every point in that never-ending loop, things get generally worse than they were before the latest intervention, and even in specific areas it’s usually hard to discern any improvement.” (09/27/26)
- ‘Civil terrorism’ is a dangerous category error
Source: Expression
by Matthew Harwood“Activists who commit crimes should be punished. But they shouldn’t be prosecuted as terrorists.” (09/26/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/civil-terrorism-is-a-dangerous-category
- Religious ‘integralists’ on the right, meet your socialist soulmates
Source: Washington Post
by George F Will“Undeterred by the axiom that there can be indecent exposure of the mind as well as the body, the Democratic Socialists of America candidly announce their agenda. Religious ‘integralists’ should be similarly explicit. DSAers want to scrap the Constitution in order to facilitate confiscating wealth, private property and other impediments to government-enforced equality and social perfection. Christian integralists, who are disproportionately Catholic, are devout and determined to make the nation more so. They would enliven politics if they would specify the measures they advocate to (as they mistakenly say) return America to being a ‘Christian nation.’ Integralists want to integrate spiritual and temporal (government) power, subordinating the latter to the former.” (09/25/26)
- America needs an ironclad, bipartisan commitment to press freedom
Source: The Hill
by Dan Perry“The warning signs have accumulated for years: Trump’s ‘fake news’ obsession, the Associated Press access dispute over ‘Gulf of America,’ new Pentagon restrictions on reporters and battles with media companies facing federal decisions. Seen separately, these episodes can look idiosyncratic, even absurd. Seen together, they raise a serious concern about using government power to shape who can cover the government and on what terms. That is why the response should extend beyond journalism. The proposed statement should be narrow enough to attract people who disagree about almost everything else. Its purpose would be to establish a rule for presidential power, not adjudicate the merits of CNN, Fox, Trump or or any particular story.” (09/27/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/6112000-trump-white-house-press-ban/
- Self-Governing Is a Modern Miracle
Source: Town Hall
by Jeff Davidson“With our semiquincentennial on July 4 now history, we are at the start of our 240th year since the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, the vital document that has long guided our nation and which Leftists fervently seek to dishonor and destroy. Those who are highly knowledgeable about American history are likely familiar with this story: In September 1787, Elizabeth Willing Powel, a premier social figure within the Colonies, approached Benjamin Franklin after the signing of the Constitution. She asked, ‘Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?’ Franklin answered with a reply for the ages, ‘A republic, if you can keep it’. Franklin understood that creating a government of and by the people was a tenuous undertaking.” (09/26/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/jeffdavidson/2026/09/26/self-governing-is-a-modern-miracle-n2683565
- An Open Letter to Scott Alexander
Source: Quillette
by Steven Pinker“The dangers of AI are real, but doomerism may be counterproductive.” (09/26/26)
- Incentive or selection
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman“There are two quite different models of why democracy works held by people who think it does. One is a model of incentives, one of selection. The incentive version relies on the fact that politicians want to get elected and reelected. To get elected they have to support the policies that a majority of the voters want; to get elected again, they have to actually work for those policies. … The selection model relies on the facts that people differ and that we have some ability to tell what other people are like.” (09/26/26)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/incentive-or-selection
- The renewed roots of election integrity
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“Organizing and running elections in the United States is left to individual states to determine and oversee. But this month alone, the U.S. Supreme Court has weighed in on these processes multiple times. On Sept. 14, it issued a one-paragraph concurrence limiting proposed federal changes to mail-in voting. Earlier this week, Missouri’s redistricted voting map was back on the emergency docket for the third time this month. And on Friday, the court ruled to allow use of a vast federal database to check voter eligibility. Amid the legalese and partisan arguments surrounding such cases, American voters are both confused and concerned about the trustworthiness of the country’s election processes. … close to half have doubts about election integrity – not a good sign for democracy. But this is precisely what is spurring greater efforts among local election official and volunteers to boost both trust and transparency. And that is a good sign for democracy.” (09/25/26)
- How Murdering Suspected Drug Smugglers Became the New Normal
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum“A year after launching his explosive antidrug campaign, President Donald Trump routinely rains death on alleged cocaine couriers.” (for publication 11/26)
https://reason.com/2026/09/26/how-murdering-suspected-drug-smugglers-became-the-new-normal/
- “Easier and more convenient”
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathn Barton“The entire AI craziness is, we believe, directly tied to the entire Data Center controversy. Whether the opposition to massive data centers is being pushed (or at least triggered) by the CCP (or Russia, or the Iranians, or ‘just’ Soros and Bill Gates) or is the latest tactic by the Woke, environists, and Luddites, it is clearly now a significant issue in thousands of communities. As well as an incredible display of cognitive or mental dissonance. You use AI, you use your smart phone, you spend all your time on social media and streaming movies and television series, but you are totally against the infrastructure and consumption of power and water necessary to furnish you those wonderful things. Of course, this is again (as with so many things) not new.” (09/25/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/09/25/easier-and-more-convenient/
- AI Doomers Don’t Want to Stop AI; They Want to Control It
Source: American Greatness
by Jordan Schachtel“The debate over America’s AI future is usually framed in a very specific way. In the tech and policy world, the common framing is as simple as a battle between those who want to build AI systems as fast as possible and those who want to slow it down. More accurately, the fight over AI is about who gets to control America’s AI future. On one side there are the AI Doomers, most of whom want to capture and control the technology for their peer networks. On the other side are those who believe that facilitating a free and open playing field is the best way for this technology to bring about human flourishing. AI Doomers are split over what the future looks like, and they surely have internal squabbles about how to navigate the narrative war, but they fundamentally agree about the idea that they should be the ones in charge.” (09/25/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/09/25/ai-doomers-dont-want-to-stop-ai-they-want-to-control-it/
- The Why of Food Emancipation
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Jeffrey A Tucker“As incredible as it seems, many people today haven’t thought at all about food production, any more than driving gives us consciousness of car factories or wearing clothes makes us aware of cotton fields and robotic looms. When asked, people just assume food as we know it comes from some factory out there somewhere and who cares anyway? … an entire way of life – a way toward health, well-being, and happiness – has been stolen from us. Not neglected, not outcompeted, but literally forced out of existence. This happened not by market forces as such, not by some impersonal mind of history, but by a labyrinth of regulations, mandates, taxes, controls, subsidies, and monopoly-creating controls, all conspiring to keep the way of life of our ancestors from returning.” (09/26/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-why-of-food-emancipation/
- Tech Plutocrats Cannot Lead Us Into A Healthy Future
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“Tech plutocrats are the high-budget expression of the ‘everyone is twelve now’ theory. You wanna go to Mars? Of course you do, you’re twelve. You think you can merge your consciousness with machinery and unlock the key to immortality? Hell yeah my twelve year-old homie. You’re gonna invent an Artificial Superintelligence God who will solve all our problems? Bless your twelve year-old heart. Their visions for the future of humanity are never particularly wise or intelligent. It’s just a bunch of drugged-up rich guys using their vast fortunes to chart a course for our species that would sound totally awesome to the average preadolescent boy.” (09/26/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/09/26/tech-plutocrats-cannot-lead-us-into-a-healthy-future/
- American Jesus: Christian Revival and “Casinofication”
Source: CounterPunch
by David S D’Amato“As Hannah Hartley writes this month for the Rumi Forum’s Center for Faith Identity & Globalization, ‘Christianity is not growing among Gen Z in any meaningful aggregate sense. It is consolidating, becoming smaller in total membership, more male, more politically conservative, and more legible as a vehicle for political identity.’ The clickbait mirage of religious revival has obscured these very real trends for years, forestalling a more relevant and important conversation about the role Christianity plays in American politics and culture. And that conversation is worth having for several reasons, not least of which is that it underscores the deep ambivalence and ambiguity of Jesus as a figure in our cultural history.” (09/25/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/09/25/american-jesus-christian-revival-and-casinofication/
- Republican candidates can’t escape the stink of Trumpism
Source: Los Angeles Times
by LZ Granderson“‘Daddy’s back,’ is what Florida gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds proudly said in January 2025. Which is why removing the president’s picture from the Donalds gubernatorial campaign website, as he reportedly did earlier this month, won’t remove the smell of Trumpism. Not mentioning the president’s name in television ads or suddenly being against the war in Iran that Trump started — which is what Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers is attempting to do in Michigan — will not get Trump’s thiols off of his skin. Nor will deleting the phrase ‘Trump-endorsed candidate’ from your social media bio …. those men were endorsed by the president. Each of them knew what he smelled like. Each of them agreed to smell like him … when it was politically advantageous. Now they can’t get the Trump stink off of them fast enough no matter how many times they lather, rinse and repeat.” (09/25/26)
- Europe’s New ASEAN Deal
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott“In Manila, on Tuesday, September 22, the European Union and the Philippines agreed on the substance of a free trade agreement, one that revealed the shape of Europe’s strategy in Southeast Asia. The deal, giving Philippine exporters permanent preferential access to the EU market of roughly 450 million consumers, follows agreements already in force with Singapore and Vietnam, an Indonesian pact awaiting approval, and Thai talks entering what Bangkok hopes to be their final round. Together, these agreements tie the EU, already the third-largest trading partner for the ASEAN bloc, and its largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI), into several of the largest economies in the region—but not the bloc as a whole. The EU is building its Southeast Asian relationship nation by nation, undermining the prospects of a bloc-to-bloc agreement that both sides still profess to want.” (09/25/26)
- Farmers Voted for This
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson“American farmers rely on imports for many of their most critical inputs—fertilizer, chemicals, machinery—and rely on exports to large overseas markets such as China for a big part of their profits, and, as such, conducting a series of trade wars fought with tariffs is just about the worst possible economic policy for them as a group. Naturally, American farmers and farming communities keep voting roughly two-to-one for trade wars—a vote for Donald Trump, the guy who insists that ‘trade wars are good and easy to win,’ is a vote for trade wars. Farmers voted for trade wars, and trade wars they got. And—surprise!—agriculture is in something like a full-blown recession, with farm incomes projected to decline by a whopping 5.5 percent in real terms this year. Farm bankruptcies are up 46 percent since 2024, and some 15,000 farming operations went dark last year.” (09/25/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/farmers-republicans-trade-war-trump/
- US medical schools have gone DEI-crazy, with deadly results
Source: New York Post
by staff“Racism plagues American health care: reverse racism. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division just brought another case against a top medical school for blatant discrimination against white and Asian applicants: Blacks applying to the University of California at San Francisco’s med school get admitted at almost 13 times the rate of similarly qualified white applicants. Black and Hispanic students the school admitted from 2023 to ’25 averaged lower test scores and undergraduate grades than the average white and Asian applicant the school rejected. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon’s letter blasting UCSF follows similar ones to UCLA, UCSD and Yale; virtually every other US med school is likely as bad, but she’s building the evidence before she strikes. The University of Pennsylvania offers a path for students at eight other colleges to enter medical school without taking the MCAT at all — and five of the eight are historically black colleges.” (09/26/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/09/26/opinion/us-medical-schools-have-gone-dei-crazy-with-deadly-results/
- Stephen Miller Is Paying Monstrous Dictators to Admit Expelled Immigrants
Source: The UnPopulist
by Greg Sargent“Did you know that the U.S. government has an agency called the ‘Office of Remigration’? In case you’re unfamiliar with the term ‘remigration,’ it’s typically used by white nationalists to describe the mass expulsion of nonwhite immigrants, done in the quest to ethnically cleanse ‘Western’ countries. It’s mostly a European term, but Trump himself employed the phrase ‘reverse migration’ last year, mainstreaming ‘remigration’ on the American right—and true to its name, the office now helps facilitate mass removals in some very dark and sordid ways. So let’s lay down a marker: If Democrats take over the House and/or the Senate, they should make it their business next year to ensure that this agency faces truly withering scrutiny. As many Americans as possible should know what their government is doing in their name.” (09/25/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/stephen-miller-is-paying-monstrous
- Why Does Government Still Run Like a Commodore 64?
Source: RealClearPolitics
by Anthony Constantino“America’s government has become a masterclass in deliberate, costly failure. You can order dinner, hail a car, transfer money across the country, trash a pundit, praise a friend, and run a business from your phone in seconds. The private sector figured this out years ago. Yet the second you deal with your own government, you step into a dysfunctional time machine: endless paperwork, overloaded websites that crash, multi-hour hold times, lines that stretch for blocks, and approvals that crawl at the speed of 1985. … The private sector rebuilds itself constantly. Yet government clings to legacy processes written for a slower century. Why? Because broken systems protect power.” (09/25/26)
- Cheating with Democracy
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“Changing polling places always occurs, every election year, and the biggest changes in this regard have been in the eight states (and D.C.) that have established mail-in only voting. Talk about a change of polling places! And then there is the purging of voter rolls of non-citizen, non-resident, and non-existent voters! Who could complain about that? Only unserious people. Like Democrats. Like Kamala Harris. And those who seek to game elections.” (09/25/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/09/25/cheating-w-democracy/
- Progressivism’s Imposter Syndrome
Source: Law & Liberty
by Elizabeth Grace Matthew“To a leftist influencer, almost anything is better than being exposed as a fraud.” (09/25/26)
- NYT’s Nikole Hannah-Jones Regrets Sending Her Daughter to Failing Public School
Source: The Daily Economy
by Corey A DeAngelis“The Project 1619 journalist said parents should stick with struggling, segregated schools. Her daughter isn’t the only one who was cheated by that ideological choice.” (09/25/26)
- Trump’s Diversionary Assault on the First Amendment
Source: Common Dreams
by Steven J Harper“President Donald Trump is in trouble and he knows it: He promised ‘no more foreign wars’, but started a war with Iran that he has lost. He promised to tame inflation, but tariffs and his war of choice have made it worse. He promised to deport only the ‘worst of the worst’ illegal immigrants. But Immigration and Customs Enforcement has terrorized American cities as agents sometimes arrested, detained, wounded, or killed US citizens. He promised to make the United States the most respected country in the world, but he has destroyed America’s reputation and alienated its allies. He calls himself the best president in history, but his approval rating has dropped to the mid-30s — his lowest ever and approaching President Richard Nixon’s final approval rating of 24% shortly before his resignation in 1974.” (09/26/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-first-amendment-distraction
- Mainstream Economics: Money as Medium of Exchange, Unit of Account, and Store of Value
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Joshua Mawhorter“Before a good can be considered money, it must first serve as a medium of exchange and become so through a market process of production, subjective value, and exchange. This necessarily also provides the basis for money to be a meaningful unit of account and a ‘store of value’ (though the term is not fully appropriate). The Mengerian theory of money, refined by Mises and Rothbard, has been extrapolated more fully elsewhere; however, in brief, it posits that money emerges spontaneously from barter as market participants increasingly prefer more marketable goods as media of exchange, eventually producing a generally-accepted medium of exchange. These goods tended to have certain characteristics—scarcity, divisibility, portability, durability, recognizability, fungibility, high value per weight, etc.” (09/25/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/mainstream-economics-money-medium-exchange-unit-account-and-store-value
- Affordable Broadband is a Local Victory
Source: The Daily Economy
by Alex Rosado“Competition, deregulation, and innovation are giving consumers faster internet at lower prices.” (09/25/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/affordable-broadband-is-a-local-victory/
- The Constitution of Liberty in the Era of AI
Source: EconLog
by Paul Dragos Aligica“We are living through a great social transformation comparable to the industrial revolution. What sets it apart is not only its magnitude, but its multidimensional convergence: technological, economic, political, and epistemic shifts unfolding simultaneously and reinforcing one another. This shift places growing strain on inherited political cleavages and ideological frameworks, many forged under very different technological and institutional conditions. Mega-trends such as digitalization, artificial intelligence, platform economies, biotechnology, and the reconfiguration of global networks are not just reshaping production and exchange; they are redefining the conditions under which governance operates. The result is a systemic transformation that penetrates the foundations of contemporary political and economic orders. At the core of this transformation is a radical expansion of the institutional possibility frontier.” (09/25/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/the-constitution-of-liberty-in-the-era-of-ai
- Scholia for a Free Society
Source: Law & Liberty
by Itxu Diaz“The dialectical battle between traditionalists and lovers of liberty has given us brilliant debates over the past few centuries, but also countless missed opportunities. The battle for freedom must be fought continuously, because whenever it is not being fought, freedom retreats; it is always under threat. We see this often these days. In confronting that threat, beyond the work of the usual figures, it may be useful to reconsider the work of those who called themselves ‘authentic reactionaries’ and who, in reality, also offered fruitful arguments in defense of freedom.” (09/25/26)
- Bolivia has rejected socialism and is open for business
Source: New York Post
by Rodrigo Paz Pereira“Bolivia is beginning a new chapter. For nearly two decades, my country was governed by the Movement Toward Socialism. That period reshaped Bolivia’s economy, institutions, and relationship with the United States. Today, my government is taking a different direction: rebuilding confidence, strengthening institutions, opening the economy to investment, and creating more room for private enterprise and entrepreneurship. When I took office, Bolivia’s Central Bank had only $51 million in reserves. Ten months later, reserves had risen to close to $1.2 billion, and our objective is to continue rebuilding them. Inflation remains high, fuel shortages have tested our people, and the work ahead is difficult. But the direction is clear: Bolivia is putting its economic house in order. ” (09/26/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/president-paz-bolivia-rejected-socialism-open-business
- The Socialist Chic: Almost Half of Americans Now Hold Positive Views
Source: Jonathan Turley Blog
by Jonathan Turley“Karl Marx believed that ‘Democracy is the road to socialism’. Socialists seem to have found a generation of dupes to buy their ahistorical, fanciful pitch. A new poll shows 43% now have a positive view of socialism. An astonishing 65% of Democrats have a positive view. Socialism is now the rage on the left. Like clothing styles, if you wait long enough, socialism tends to come back into style with generations with no memory of past failures. However, it is an astonishing trend in one of the most prosperous nations on Earth that outlasted a history cluttered with the broken failures of socialist and communist systems. A new slick packaging of socialism has emerged with leaders such as Zohran Mamdani offering to teach people of the ‘warmth of collectivism’. The Democratic Socialists of America are enticing voters with narratives like ‘Imagine the end of capitalism’.” (09/25/26)
- America’s Arsenal: While Supplies Last
Source: Antiwar.com
by Nolan Denaro“American troops at bases across the Middle East have tragically been killed by Iranian strikes, as the military is forced to ration the remaining stockpile of defensive weapons. Just days into the war, America’s client-states in the Gulf were said to have depleted years worth of munitions. In the months of conflict that followed these dire reports, the effects of what [Pat] Buchanan called ‘imperial overstretch’ were being felt. Bases faced an onslaught of Iranian missiles and drones. Damage was so severe that many will likely not be returned to by the U.S. military. A chaotic withdrawal, of sorts. The American regional order in the Middle East is collapsing in real time.” (09/25/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/nolan_denaro/2026/09/24/americas-arsenal-while-supplies-last
- The US kill count in Iran makes the phrase ‘precision strikes’ absurd
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Martin Di Caro“Pulitzer Prize winning war correspondent Azmat Khan says the Pentagon still obfuscates, lies, and manipulates the truth about civilian deaths in war.” (09/25/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/precision-strikes-iran-civilians/
- Freedom, Markets, and Income Inequality
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman“For good or ill, individuals differ in all sorts of ways, many of them relevant to their ability to please us, the consumers. No need to stop the presses—we all know this. Yet many intellectuals want a social system premised on the principle that people are ‘equal’ not as a moral/legal presumption, but equal in intelligence, talent, energy, time preference, conscientiousness, cooperativeness, etc.—and therefore deserving of more or less equal incomes, outcomes, and opportunities. Anything short of their ideal (‘disparate outcomes’), the egalitarians tell us, must be chalked up to past or present injustice (racism, for example) and privilege, requiring coercive government intervention. That’s wokeism. People who are honest with themselves know those intellectuals are worse than wrong and that the record of their ideal in practice has been bloody beyond belief.” (09/25/26)
https://sheldonrichman.substack.com/p/tgif-freedom-markets-and-income-inequality
- Unattended Baggage, episode 358
Source: Unattended Baggage
“Keep Alex off the boat!” (09/26/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-358-keep-alex-off-the-boat
- Pink Flame of Liberty, 09/26/26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“Wrapping Up Judicial Committee Opinions – New Hampshire Disaffiliation.” (09/26/26)
- The Good Fight, 09/26/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Simon Sebag Montefiore on the Origins of the Modern Middle East.” (09/26/26)
- Year Zero with Tommy Salmons, 09/26/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Chatting w/John Weeks.” (09/26/26)
- Freakonomics Radio, episode 688
Source: Freakonomics
“When Is a Bet Not a Bet?” (09/25/26)
- Rising, 09/25/26
Source: The Hill
“Lindsey Granger gives her lens on Tucker Carlson’s NPR interview, where he once again called for President Trump to be removed from office.” (09/25/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/6089759-rising-september-25-2026/
- Sal and Mark, episode 20
Source: Free Talk Live
“Mark is away this week, so his son Jack steps in for his first show with Sal. Sal goes through the backlash to his viral ‘Islam is a natural ally of libertarianism’ tweet and answers his critics. Then we play Sal’s talk to a room of cypherpunks in Amsterdam, covering agorism, the counter-economy, Ross Ulbricht, and the privacy tools you can use today. After that, Mark Edge sits down with David D. Friedman, author of The Machinery of Freedom, to talk about private law and arbitration, why you can’t opt out of the criminal justice system, plea bargains and wrongful convictions, the Chicago School, and his decades in the Society for Creative Anachronism and the Pennsic War.” (09/25/26)
- The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan, 09/25/26
Source: The Weekly Dish
“Jacob Weisberg On Trump’s Collaborators.” (09/25/26)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/jacob-weisberg-on-trumps-collaborators
- Fountainhead Forum, episode 491
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Sheldon Richman on libertarian walkouts, Murray Rothbard, and the liberty movement today.” (09/25/26)
- Checks & Balances, 09/25/26
Source: Checks & Balances
“How Hitler Used Democracy to DESTROY It.” (09/25/26)
https://chkbal.substack.com/p/how-hitler-used-democracy-to-destroy
- System Update, 09/25/26
Source: Glenn Greenwald
“Julian Assange Is Back — Here’s What That Means.” (09/25/26)
https://rumble.com/v7fz78k-julian-assange-is-back-heres-what-that-means.html
- SolutionsWatch, 09/25/26
Source: The Corbett Report
“Holding Government Accountable.” (09/25/26)
https://corbettreport.com/holding-government-accountable-solutionswatch/
- The Anarchist Experience, episode 599
Source: The Anarchist Experience
“Rich and Riley talk about the failing mask bar in Massachusetts, how to be an adult, and the LPNH assassination request.” (09/25/26)
https://theanarchistexperience.wordpress.com/2026/09/25/the-anarchist-experience-599/
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 09/25/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Banning The Export of Diesel Will Only Make A Bad Situation Worse.” (09/25/26)
- Serious Trouble, 09/25/26
Source: Serious Trouble
“Public Disclosure of Privates Facts.” (09/25/26)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/public-disclosure-of-privates-facts
- The Climate Realism Show, episode 218
Source: Heartland Institute
“Covering NYC Climate Week.” (09/25/26)
https://heartland.org/podcasts/covering-nyc-climate-week-the-climate-realism-show-218/
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 09/24/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“The Strange Claim That Libertarianism Is Dead.” (09/24/26)
- Ben Aris on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“A Deep Dive on the State of the War in Ukraine.” (09/24/26)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/9-19-26-ben-aris-a-deep-dive-on-the-state-of-the-war-in-ukraine/
- The Chris Hedges Report, 09/24/26
Source: The Chris Hedges Report
“The Iran War and the Looming Economic Collapse (w/ John Mearsheimer.” (09/24/26)
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-iran-war-and-the-looming-economic
- Underthrow Podcast, 09/24/26